Unlocked iPhone 3GS

This post is for all iPhone lovers, if you are like me and totally frustrated by the locked iPhones that Apple sells the good news is Apple sells Official Factory Unlocked iPhones 3GS. Unlike the US there are some countries that have sane laws about locking the phone that a Mobile service provider gives you. I own an iPhone 3GS which I brought for the full price contract free from AT&T, straight off from Cupertino, California, US when I was there a few months back. Using the iPhone 3GS was a great experience while I was in the US. Once I came back to India I had no other option but to hack the iPhone 3GS or Jailbreak it as its called, once the iPhone is Jailbroken you can Unlock it to make it work with your local Service Provider.

The jailbreaking was not an issue, the iPhone worked great after unlocking it, but I get frustrated when I think about how I brought such an expensive gadget with my money and was not being allowed to use it in the way I wanted to, also the ethical factor bothered me a lot. And every time there is a firmware update I have to wait for the unlock to come out.

I am a great Apple fan. I work on a 15″ Mac Book pro and all my design and development work is done on it, Apple is great at churning out really cool products that just simply work out of the box, the User Experience, right from the packaging, Design, Hardware and Software is extremely streamlined. But they have one big drawback they lock you down into their system whether its Hardware or Software.

So I began my quest for an Official unlocked iPhone. First I started by looking on eBay and was horrified by the prices at which the 3GS was selling. Now by cheap I don’t literally mean cheap but you can get it for the exact full price that Apple sells it for, without the need for buying it off from eBay for $$$ and then when you get it you realise it’s badly scratched or doesn’t work properly or is truly locked.

The Cheapest Place to buy An Unlocked iPhone 3GS

The Cheapest Place to buy An official factory Unlocked iPhone 3GS now is Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of the few countries where its illegal to lock a Phone down to a Mobile service provider, hence Apple sells it unlocked. check out the iPhone Prices on the Hong Kong Apple Store

Here is what it states on the Apple iPhone Page.

iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier. Simply insert the SIM from your current phone into iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS and connect to
iTunes 8.2 to complete activation.2 Purchase limitations may apply.

Price Listing for an unlocked iPhone 3GS in Hong Kong.

• iPhone 3GS 16GB is 5388 Hong Kong dollars = 696 U.S. dollars
• iPhone 3GS 32GB is 6288 Hong Kong dollars = 812 U.S. dollars

Official Unlocked iPhone 3GS Hong Kong Prices

The Other places to buy unlocked iPhones but not so cheap prices are

Australia iPhone 3GS Apple Store Prices

• iPhone 3GS 16GB is 879 Australian dollars = 820 U.S. dollars
• iPhone 3GS 32GB is 1040 Australian dollars = 970 U.S. dollars

New Zealand iPhone 3GS Apple Store Prices

• iPhone 3GS 16GB is 1149 New Zealand dollars = 853 U.S. dollars
• iPhone 3GS 32GB is 1349 New Zealand dollars = 1002 U.S. dollars

The List of Places where you Can buy an unlocked iPhone are list below. the data might be a little old. But you can check for an Updated list on the Apple Website itself which lists all the places in the World where the iPhone is sold and also which Wireless provider sells Unlocked iPhones

• Belgium – Mobistar 16GB: 575 EUR32GB: 675 EUR
• Czech Republic – O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone 16GB: 15 777 CZK32GB: 18 377 CZK
• Greece – Vodafone, Cosmote16GB: 569.00 EUR32GB: 668.99 EUR
• Hong Kong – 316GB: HK$ 5,38832GB: HK$ 6,288
• Italy – TIM, Vodafone16GB: 619 EUR32GB: 719 EUR
• Luxemburg – Vox Mobile, LUXGSM
• Macau – 3
• Malaysia – Maxis16GB: RM249032GB: RM2990
• New Zealand – Vodafone16GB: 1,179 NZD32GB: 1,379 NZD
• Russia – MegaFon, MTS, Beeline
• Saudi Arabia – Mobily
• Singapore – SingTel
• Slovakia – Orange
• South Africa – Vodacom16GB: R750032GB: R8500
• Taiwan – Chunghwa Telecom
• Thailand – TrueMove
• Turkey – TurkCell
• United Arab Emirates – Etisalat

Source my google search turned up hackint0sh.org/

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2. Apple Numbers
3. Good Bye Apple You Suck Really Bad
4. iPhone Nano Can It Be True ? Naaa
5. Confirmed iPhone To be Launched on June 29

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | 29 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Apple, Featured, iPhone Tags: Buying Guide, Gadget, Mac OSX